Chapter 3

It was strangely quiet with all the members of the patrol gone. Even Ted was off base. Shaun got a bacon sandwich from the mess tent and a cup of tea before heading back to his tent. Stretched out on his cot he wondered how they were getting on with Ali.

They’re a good crew, he thought, all from different backgrounds. Jack who was second in command was solid; he was the patrols heavy weapons expert. Ex-Guards Machine Gun Company, he looked after the Vickers Medium machine gun and the twin Vickers K that sat in front of Shaun in the truck.

Titch who was driver and mechanic of Sue.

Corporal ‘Prof’ Workington was the patrol’s navigator. A former Cambridge graduate who had refused a commission, stating he was no leader of men. But now he led the patrol in the harsh desert of Libya, where, if he got it wrong, could result in their death. Prof had spent five years out in Egypt before the war, studding Egyptology. He had spent time roaming around the deserts hoping to find another Valley of the Kings. In doing so he had become adept in navigation using the sun and stars to find his way. Now he relied on the Bagnold Sun Compass, invented by the founder of the L R D G, along with his P8 tank compass, theodolite and astronomical position tables.

Lance Corporal Sammy Owen was a Kiwi and the patrol’s wireless operator. He had grown up on a farm where the only means of communication was with the farm’s radio transmitter. As a young boy he had become interested in radios to the extent that he had built his own transceiver. Now he looked after the 11 set and the Philips model 635 receiver, indispensable for receiving the GMT time signal vital for accurate navigational positioning.

Lance Corporal ‘Cookie’ Yates was the patrol’s medical and explosives expert who also doubled as cook when out on patrol. He was Rhodesian, having worked has a blaster in the gold mines. The things he could do with plastic explosives were legendary, as was the food he could make out of basic army rations supplemented by the food parcels that Shaun received from home with tin peaches, coffee, and biltong amongst other things. He kept a box on board Sue with his herbs and spices that helped to make the inedible edible.

Shaun smiled to himself. He had dropped on lucky with his team.

Most of them were survivors from other patrols and made up the numbers to form new patrols. Captain Frazer had inherited these made up patrols to form his own “O” patrol section, comprising initially of five patrol vehicles, now sadly only four. The men in the section laughed that the unit “O” stood for odds and sods. But since Betty they no longer said that.

Shaun had arrived in North Africa as a fresh-faced Second Lieutenant of twenty right from his training in Rhodesia. That had been in early 1940. He had been bitterly disappointed to be posted to liaison duties at Allied Headquarters when all the action was taking place to the West as the Italians were pushed back.

But then he heard of the unit Major Bagnold was putting together and volunteered for it. He was accepted and began training with other likeminded volunteers.

The equipment and trucks were adapted, as their experience grew, to suit the task for which it had been formed. That was deep penetration behind the enemy’s lines to observe and report back to base.

They also carried out raids on the Italian truck convoys and forts, creating mayhem deep behind the lines. But such actions were not without their costs. The harsh terrain took its toll of machines and men, as well as the ever presence of discovery by either enemy land forces or aircraft.